Pandora Andrea Gastelum is a puppeteer, costume designer, writer and performer. She graduated with honors from New York University where she was an awarded essayist and playwright and where she ultimately received a B.F.A. in Theatre, double majoring in the Sociology of Gender. She has studied directing and acting for the stage at La Pietra in Florence and marionette arts under Jan Unger in Prague, Czech Republic. Miss Gastelum spent one year training as an embalmer, studying anatomy and physiology, pathology and comparative religion at the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service in New York. She has worked as a puppeteer, mask and costume designer, and special effects artist both On- and Off- Broadway in New York City. She is co-founder/ co-artistic director of The Black Forest Fancies Non-profit Theatre Collective in New Orleans, Louisiana. She has written and performed with this troupe for five years, touring through venues across the continental U.S. Pandora was awarded an artist residency for Fall-Winter 2006-07 at Patravadi Theatre in Bangkok Thailand, where she worked closely with actors and acrobats teaching puppet and mask fabrication and studying Thai performance. She enjoys an annual residency at The Dream Community in Taipei, Taiwan where she is builds giant puppets and costumes for the summer parade season and instructs at community workshops on creating art from recycled materials. During the school year she teaches these skills in New Orleans public schools through The Black Forest Fancies. Miss Gastelum was orphaned in 2007. It became her central focus to recover from devastation alongside New Orleans. She bought a Katrina- damaged property and, working alongside her friends and community members, renovated it from the ground- up for a full year. The space is called The Mudlark Public Theatre. "Mudlark" is a Depression- era term for orphan. The Mudlark opened with a cutting-edge cabaret on Halloween Weekend to sold-out houses. The Mudlark hosts regular movie nights, musical events and a diverse array of local and touring theatre. Miss Gastelum is a two time recipient of artist’s service awards from the Louisiana Division of the Arts and has used these funds to participate in multiple International Theatre Festivals. At these festivals she has encountered advancements in puppetry at their source and formed strong relationships with collaborators she now hopes to host at the Mudlark Public Theatre.

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